? ?ROSES FOR RACHEL
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? EPISODE_39 ?
Everyone was careful to be very hush hush about what Calvin’s plans were for us today, although I knew that the handmaidens all knew from the way they kept giggling and whispering together. Everyone made less of a fuss when he proposed so I seriously wondered what could be the big surprise.
“Go get dressed.” Maria smiled, handing me a bag of clothes.
I looked at her and the other four girls strangely before I went into the bathroom to get re-ady. They had alre-ady done my makeup, and my hair was curled and all pu-ll-ed into a side ponytail. I dug throu-gh the bag and was surprised when I opened it that I didn’t see a nice dress, instead it was a pair of nice dark skinny legged jeans and a pale green long sleeved bu-tton up. I turned to look in the mirror and I saw that I looked the most casual that I ever have since being here, which only made me even more clueless about what was going on.
I walked back out into the main room, and Maria brou-ght me a pair of dark swede knee high boots with a grin. “Am I going rock climbing or something?” I asked and the girls all giggled. “Ok, whatever.” I smiled, Zi-pping up the boots.
The knock on the door s£nt my heart into overdrive and all the girls rushed from the room as Calvin entered. He grinned at me from across the room. He had on a pair a light tan p@n-ts, and a red flannel bu-tton up with boots too. He looked like the S-xiest lumberjack that ever lived, minus the fact that his face was way too refined and beautiful to be a lumberjack. “Hello, gorgeous.” He smiled, walking towards me slowly, holding the tie I’d made him in his hand. He swayed it back in forth in his hands as he got closer.
“What are you doing?” I asked him, trying to contain my smile.
Suddenly he was behind me, his f!ngerstrailing my n£¢k lightly as he brou-ght his hands around to the front of me and wra-pping the tie gently over my eyes. “I’m taking you somewhere.” He whispered into my ear in a sultry tone.
I sighed, leaning my b©dy back into him. “And I have to be blindfolded to go there?” I asked quietly.
He gr@bb£d my shoulders, spinning me around to face him, and I g@sped a little as he trailed his f!nger from myl-ips down my chin, then my n£¢k, only st©pping at the first bu-tton on my shi-t. “Yes.” He whispered, close enough that his breath blew a wisp of my hair across my forehead. “Are you re-ady?” He asked and I nodded. “You aren’t afraid of heights are you?”
My pulse quic-kened. “Um, kind of.” I admitted.
“Uh-oh.” He chuckled, then gr@bb£d my shoulders again, spinning me back and leading me from behind. “You’ll be fine.”
I giggled as I let him lead me from the room and onto the elevator. “Are you going to give me any hints?” I asked.
“Nope.” He answered simply.
I felt like we walked for a long time when we got off of the elevator, and then I was back on another elevator. The ride seemed to last forever, going up into infinity, and then I remembered the long elevator ride I had taken on my first day here. “Are we leaving Castrum de Petra?” I asked a little overly excited.
I felt like his mood changed just for a minute, then his hands were back on my w@!st and his mouth was on the side of my n£¢k. “Can you plea-se just wait and see?” He asked me gently.
“It’s called a surprise for a reason.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.” He chuckled and the doors swished again.
“Your highnesses.” A woman’s voice greeted us and I felt completely awkward knowing other people were seeing me get ushered around like this. “This way.” She said and Calvin pu-ll-ed me in the direction of her voice.
I could tell when we left the building, the crisp air wra-pping me up in its ca-ress. I was feeling pretty good until I started to hear the water. I recognized the sound of it instantly. “Calvin.” I said urgently, st©pping in place.
“What?” He asked sounding surprised.
My heart started pounding and I was having trouble breathing.
“Calvin, plea-se, I want to take off the blindfold.”
I felt his hands on both of my shoulders. “We’re almost the-.” He started but he didn’t un-derstand.
“No!” I shouted, panic rising in me. “plea-se!”
He pu-ll-ed the tie away from my face and he studied my eyes, looking at me closely. “What’s wrong, Rachel?”
I turned to my left and I could see it in the distance. The fountain that they had lined all of us girls up at on the first night in the auction. Tears sp©tted my vision as I stared at it, the memory of my fear that night filling me again. I hvgged him, burying my face in his che-st and he put his arms around me, k!ss!ngme on the t©p of my head. “I’m sorry.” I whispered to him. “It’s just that…the night they brou-ght me here, they lined us all up in front of that fountain, and then when they picked me they threw a bag over my head and f0rç£d me to come with them.” I explained. “Hearing the fountain, and being blindfolded…”
“God, Rachel.” He said holding me ti-ghter. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” He apologized and I could hear the pain in his voice. “I didn’t mean to trudge any of that up for you.”
I pu-ll-ed away from him slightly, standing on my toes to k!sshim.
“Of course not.” I said trying to smile. “Don’t be sorry.” I told him then looked around. Everything was the same as I remembered it. The old stone city, with cobble stone streets wra-pping around the large fountain that spirt the water up into the air. The more I looked around, the more I noticed that aside from the one plump blonde woman who was standing to my right and looking at me like I was a lunatic, there was no one else around. “Where is everyone?” I asked.
Calvin smiled down at me. “There aren’t usually people up here often anyway, unless there is an auction, but I had everyone cleared for us.” He explained. “Although I feel good that the threat to you is over, I still wasn’t about to come up here with you and let people just be walking around.”
I nodded. “I wouldn’t have minded though.” I said. “I mean, I’d like to get to know some people. I feel like the only vampires I even know are you, Pedro, and my handmaidens.”
Calvin chewed hisl-ip. “That’s true.” He nodded. “I will see what we can do about that in the near future, but for now, are you re-ady to go now?”
I couldn’t help but smile at his excited expression. “Yeah.”
The woman looked at us both, ma-king sure we really were re-ady to go and then she led us around to the back side of the town throu-gh a skinny alley. When we reemerged on the other side I could alre-ady see the lit up area just down the road. “I’ve got it from here.” Calvin said, dismissing her politely. Calvin turned to me then, his pla-yful smile ma-king him look like a young boy again. “Just for s second.” He said as he picked me up, cradling me in his arms. “Cover your eyes.”
I brou-ght my hands to my face and I didn’t pu-ll them away again until after Calvin st©pped moving and the wind wasn’t whooshing by us anymore. I waited until he put my feet back on the ground, then I opened my eyes.
The road ahead of us was lined with twi-nkling lights and directly in front of me was a gorgeous white horse with a br@ided mane.
“Oh my god.” I whispered as I stared into its big beautiful brown eyes. “I’ve never seen a real horse this close before.”
Calvin walked over to it, ti-ght£ñing the saddle on its back then brushing his side. “Really?” He asked sounding a little surprised.
I to-re my eyes from the horse to look over at Calvin. “Are you trying to whisk me away on your white horse, prince charming?” I joked, then folded my arms over my che-st. “What makes you think I don’t want my own horse?” I asked. “I am an independent woman.”
Calvin held my face, then titled my chin to look over my shoulder to see the woman from earlier walking a second white horse out to us. “Did you forget how good of a planner I am, Rachel?” He smiled at me. “You should have known I am always prepared.”
“Of course you are.” I giggled.
He helped me mount my horse, and tried walking me throu-gh how to ride, but I was so high off of the ground and I was terrified of falling, so after a few minutes we both ended up on the same horse anyway. With him leading, it was fun. I could easily see myself loving horses now. Calvin clearly knew what he was doing, like he and the horse were connected, and as we road down the winding stone road, I couldn’t help but actually feeling like the princess ri-ding off into the sunset with the prince, except I’m alre-ady the queen, and Calvin and I would never share a sunset.
I sighed, pushing the thoughts of all of the things Calvin and I will never do aside, which was ha-rd at first, but bec@m£ easier as we c@m£ to a log cabin out in the middle of nowhere. Calvin helped me down and tied the horse up over by the banister, then led me slowly up the stairs and onto the porch. The first thing I noticed was there were no windows. “What is this place?” I asked as we st©pped at the front door.
Calvin grinned from ear to ear. “It’s our honeymoon.” He chuckled, then pushed open the door and I g@sped.
It was a small cabin, but the inside was adorable. The layout was all open, the kitchen in one corner, a big log be-d with checkered be-dding on the other side, and then across the long wall there was a hvge stone fireplace with a cozy fire alre-ady burning, and a big thick fur rug la-id out in front of it with a plate of strawberries, and a bottle of champagne waiting on us. “This is perfect.” I whispered, turning to Calvin to wra-p my arms up around his n£¢k and k!sshim.
He backed us up, closing the door with his foot and took me over to the rug in front of the fireplace. He pu-ll-ed his face away from mine and I whimpered at the loss. “I’ve got something for you.” He whispered, and I win-ked.
“Oh, I hope you do.”
Calvin brou-ght his hand to his che-st in faux shock. “Get your mind out of the gutter.” He laughed, then ran his hand throu-gh his hair before reaching into his back pocket and pas-sing a little black box over to me.
“What is it?” I asked, looking down at it.
“You could try opening it to find out.” He smiled.
I rolled my eyes and popped the box open, revea-ling a silver pendent n£¢klace with a tiny rose carved into the metal. “This is beautiful, Calvin.” I said as I stared at it in awe, then back up to him.
“You deserve every beautiful thing in the world.” He said, kneeling down to sit on the rug, and pu-lling me to down to straddle his l@p, then he gr@bb£d my face, k!ss!ngme ha-rd .
“I’ve got the only beautiful thing I want.” I whispered as I pu-ll-ed away and he raised his eyebrows to me. “You.” I explained and he bowed his eyes.
“You definitely deserve more than me, Rachel.” He said seriously and I gr@bb£d his face back, ma-king him look me in the eyes.
“I want you .” I told him. “No matter what you say.”
I g@sped as he lifted me quic-kly, repositioning me beneath him and he fed me a strawberry, before gr-abbing one for himself, then pushing the plate away. He looked de-eply into my eyes as he re-moved the n£¢klace box out of my hand and sat it aside too, bringing his hands back down to work the bu-ttons on my shi-t and I began doing the same. “I’ll never be able to get enough of you, Rachel.” He muttered before his mouth closed down on mine greedily.
☑To_be_Continued✨✨✨✨✨
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